Josh McDaniels on the Chargers defense: This is the best group we've played all year

The Patriots latest media session was them taking questions strictly Chargers. Here are some key quotes:

“The Chargers defense in general is – this is the best group we’ve played all year. Their defensive front is extremely disruptive. They play a one-gap style of defense. That’s what Coach (Gus) Bradley’s always done and they’re really good at what they do, create a lot of issues for you with their penetration. They’re disruptive in the running game and create negative plays, which puts you into second and third-and-long which they excel at and then they can create a ton of problems then with their pass rush. The way that they play on early downs lends itself to them being able to turn it loose and really get after the quarterback in passing situations when they know you have to throw. It’s a group that’s got a lot of people that have created impact plays for them this year.”

Think everyone agrees that this will be the best defense that the Patriots have seen. Fastest, for sure. How the Patriots choose to attack that speed will be fascinating. Here’s Bill Belichick on the quality of the Chargers:

“This team has won a lot of football games and they’ve played well against a lot of good football teams in every area in all three phases of the game. They’ve won a lot of close games so I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Lynn, all of the coordinators out there, their staff and their organization. They’ve done an outstanding job. Again, best record in the AFC this year. That’s not easy to do. They’ve earned it.”

Belichick has given off a vibe all week that he truly respects the Chargers. A genuine respect. It is tough to win 12 games in the NFL and not be a legit threat. Finally, Belichick on Derwin James:

“He’s as good as anybody we’ve seen all year. Big, fast, athletic, very instinctive. He primarily plays around the line of scrimmage. Usually in a safety position but they play a lot of six and seven defensive backs, so sometimes he’s in a linebacker-type position, but whether you want to call him a linebacker or a safety, he’s down near the line of scrimmage. It’s pretty much the same. He’s a very good tackler. He’s a very good blitzer when they blitz him. He can play very strong against the running game and when they put him in the deep part of the field, which happens some – he’s down a lot more than he’s back – but he plays effectively from back there too. He gets a good break on the ball. He reads the quarterback well and he’s had some big plays in the deep part of the field knocking the ball off of receivers and getting a good break on the ball and getting to the reception area. His length, his strength, his speed and his instinctiveness – he has a good nose for the ball. He’s around the ball a lot and physically he’s really hard to deal with. He’s fast and with great size and explosive power. The guy’s a really good football player.”

If you know anything about Belichick, it’s that he’s a man of few words. To rave about James and go on and on about him, tells you all you need to know about the type of player James is.

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